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The votes are coming in for one of the most closely contested presidential elections in Nigeria’s history.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Eighty-three, one-hundred-and-ninety-eight.

CORNISH: International observers have said the voting process this weekend was transparent and fair, despite technical glitches with new voter fingerprint scanners and scattered attacks by Boko Haram militants. U.S. State Department officials are also watching the election closely. Linda Thomas-Greenfield is the assistant secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department and is in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. We asked her if she had observed any election fraud or corruption in the process so far.

LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Well, we have received a number of reports from people in the field expressing concerns about what they are witnessing at some of the collation centers in the regional areas. But all in all this has been a good process. I was an observer of the election on Saturday and witnessed extraordinary commitment by the people of Nigeria who stood in line for hours and waited to vote patiently and with tremendous resolve. And I think it is a great, great statement of Nigerians’ commitment to democracy. And we’re all waiting to see the results.

CORNISH: Now, most observers are saying the process has been generally peaceful, but it’s been postelection violence that has really been damaging to Nigeria in the past. For instance, back in 2011, hundreds of people killed in postelection violence. What are your concerns this time around?

THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Well, let me first say that the violence has been much less than expected in this pre-election and election period. We are watching the situation closely now. We have been assured by both candidates of their commitment to discourage their supporters from violence.

CORNISH: During the issue of the kidnapping of the schoolgirls there was criticism that the U.S. couldn’t quite work with the Nigerian government on this, that there was concerns about corruption in the military and that the U.S. security advisers couldn’t get as much done as they would like. What does the U.S. need next from Nigeria in terms of actual cooperation?

THOMAS-GREENFIELD: We actually work very, very closely with the Nigerians on the search for the girls. We shared information. We did have an incident in which we decided that some training that we were providing to the Nigerians had to be discontinued. But our commitment is that we will continue to work with Nigeria. We will figure out where there are areas of disagreement and work out those disagreements, because terrorism anywhere affects all of us. And we have to work together to address what is happening here in Nigeria, as well as Chad, Cameroon and Niger, and we can’t do it alone. The Nigerians can’t do it alone, and the neighbors can’t do it alone.

CORNISH: Finally, Nigeria is very important to Africa economically, politically, just sheer terms of size and population. What are your concerns about Nigeria’s election and kind of how they can affect the wider region if things do not go well?

THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Well, I can tell you the entire world is watching this election, and all of Africa is watching this election. We have observers who have come from around the continent, and they are former heads of state and former government officials from across the continent, because Nigeria, as the most populous country on this continent and the largest democracy on this continent, has to succeed. But Nigeria has an important role to play in this region. The Nigerians know it. Neighbors know it. And we look forward to this process coming to closure in a way that will make all Nigerians proud but the entire continent proud.

CORNISH: Linda Thomas-Greenfield, she’s the assistant secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department. Thank you for your time.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

Low oil prices are forcing Venezuela to cut a generous subsidy program to Cuba and a dozen other Caribbean nations.

Venezuela is Latin America’s largest oil producer, and its economy depends heavily on oil exports. It’s been been hit hard by the tumbling oil prices.

“Venezuela is in desperate straits. The oil sector has been deteriorating, and now with the slumping oil prices, they needed cash desperately,” says Michael Shifter, the president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington, D.C.-based group that studies the region.

Shifter says it’s no surprise that Venezuela is trimming back a program that provides oil at subsidized, deferred payment rates to many of its Caribbean neighbors that are dependent on energy imports. Petrocaribe — an alliance of Venezuela and Caribbean nations — was created a decade ago by the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. It provided subsidized oil to countries such as Belize, Haiti and Jamaica.

The subsidies helped Caribbean nations balance their budgets and finance schools, social programs and small businesses and farms.

“This was part of his broader strategy to extend his influence to consolidate support and also to curtail influence of the United States in the region,” Shifter says. But he says when prices dropped, Venezuela “couldn’t sustain this, it was impossible.”

Caribbean nations have been bracing for the steep cutbacks in shipments of cheap crude oil, according to The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper quotes the governor of Jamaica’s central bank saying his government is adjusting by being more cautious about what to expect from Petrocaribe.

Even Cuba — the nation most closely-aligned ideologically with Venezuela — is seeing cuts to its subsidies. The Barclays report says Cuba paid for its oil by sending doctors and teachers to Venezuela.

Zahra Karimi Nooristani, 18, cautiously works her way down a rock face high above Kabul as her coach, Farhad Jamshid, guides her.

It is hazardous for his top female student to be rappelling here, not only because of the steep drop, but because she is using a frayed, nine-year-old rope handed down from the men’s mountaineering team.

Another danger she faces is the prospect of her neighbors finding out she’s climbing at all.

Afghanistan is a mountainous country, but scaling the peaks for sport is a new concept here. Mountaineering is considered an odd pastime for men, let alone women whose modesty Afghan society demands be protected at any cost – even death.

Zahra says her father, who carves gravestones for a living, has told her he is prepared to move the family to protect her and her three sisters, who are also budding climbers. He and his daughters are adamant they be allowed to practice their new skills.

The dedication of the Nooristani girls and the devotion of their father inspires Marina Kielpinski LeGree — the force behind the girls’ training. In the image below, she’s sitting with Afghan colleague Faisal Naziry (center), and Malang Darya, a well known Afghan climber (far left).

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LeGree, a 36-year-old resident of Norfolk, Va., who has spent years shepherding development projects in northeastern Afghanistan, directs a non-profit called Ascend that funds and organizes not only the training, but leadership classes for the Nooristani sisters and a handful of other Afghan girls recruited to be mountain climbers.

LeGree says her goal is to create a crop of Afghan heroines passionate about improving their country and who inspire other women here to break barriers.

“It’s a profound thing that’s been missing for a while in Afghanistan throughout the war and chaos and everything else,” LeGree says. “It doesn’t mean the housewife who is in her compound in Kandahar is going to go start climbing mountains, but she will know another Afghan woman did it and that message is really important.”

Credit: Alyson Hurt/NPR

The new team’s ultimate test will come later this year, when Ascend takes the young women to the remote, northeastern corner of Afghanistan to scale the country’s highest peak. Mt. Noshaq. Only two Afghans have ever made it to the 24,580-foot-high summit and they were men. One was Darya.

But the climb itself may prove less difficult than organizing a viable team.

Afghanistan’s national mountain climbing federation, which claims authority over the women’s team and coaches, has refused to formalize an agreement with Ascend. Its board has demanded the American NGO turn over all funds and gear to them. That’s something LeGree and her Afghan employees refuse to do because they fear the money could be misappropriated. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently ordered audits of all Afghan sports federations on suspicion of corruption.

The federation’s demands are hardly unique. Some Afghans assume “when an ex-pat becomes involved in a project they may have lots of money,” says Naziry, Ascend’s operations manager. “The money becomes their priority.”

In Ascend’s case, the roughly $30,000 LeGree says has been spent so far has largely come from her own pocket.

LeGree also had a hard time finding Afghan girls who can commit to the rigorous training and the eventual climb, so the current Mt. Noshaq team only came together last fall.

The 12 members are a diverse ethnic and socio-economic mix. They are also from the national Taekwondo and mountain climbing teams. The new joint team trains at Kabul’s main sports complex, called Ghazi Stadium.

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Building up the girls’ strength and stamina is a top priority. They are supposed to train for 90 minutes three or more times a week in this Spartan gym with no bathroom or showers. In keeping with Afghanistan’s conservative heritage, they train in loosely fitting track suits and most of the girls cover their hair with headscarves or caps while exercising.

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While the federation has on occasion paraded the girls in front of Afghan television cameras, Ascend has taken pains to keep them out of the limelight. The NGO has blocked its Facebook page in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, plus kept the date of the Mt. Noshaq climb secret to try to protect the girls from the Taliban or other extremists here who might try to harm them.

The risk isn’t keeping the four Nooristani sisters away. The coaches say they come to training more than any of the other girls.

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There is Rabia (top left), 17, who’s still in high school; Zahra (top right), the high school senior; Farnaz, (bottom left) 20, who has applied to go to medical school; Niloofar (bottom right), 21, who has applied to midwifery school.

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Zahra is painfully shy, but also fearless, and her trainers say she is the team member most likely to make it make it to the top of Mt. Noshaq.

The sisters live with their parents and other siblings in two rooms in a hilly, impoverished, Kabul neighborhood called Chehel Sotoon or Forty Columns. It’s widely said to be home to Muslim extremists who fly the black flags of the self-described Islamic State.

The women of this ultra-conservative neighborhood rarely leave the mud-walled compounds in which they live.

The girls describe mountain-climbing as liberating. “There’s freedom up there,” Rabia says with a nervous giggle, adding that she’s amazed at how much stronger she feels than when she began training last fall. Back then “my lungs were burning,” she says. “The first time up was really hard. Someone had to pull me up the mountain by my hand.”

The girls say their role model is their cousin, Sediqa Mayar Nooristani, 22. She became something of a celebrity after learning to climb when she was 14, when European mountaineers were training her father and other Afghan men.

She now heads the national mountain climbing federation, but rarely trains with the Ascend team, which is why you don’t see her in these pictures. But she does go on most practice climbs and says she plans to scale Mt. Noshaq.

In the Chehel Sotoon neighborhood, few know the four sisters are training to be mountain climbers. If anyone asks where they go every day, the family says they are taking English classes. The girls have no workout clothes other than the blue tracksuits and sneakers Ascend bought them.

“We know they partially come because we feed them and provide transportation and that’s totally fine with me,” LeGree says. “That’s how lots of scrappy athletes developed. They want it. Any day, give me people who want something and are willing to work for it and we can provide them (with) everything else.”

And as LeGree discovered, the Afghan women’s team needs everything, including food.

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Ascend arranged with several local restaurants to send lunches with fresh vegetables and lean meats to the girls after their workouts. The daily, $5 per climber investment has dramatically improved attendance at the training sessions.

All 12 girls showed up and wolfed down the spinach stew and roasted chicken. It was the first meal that day for many of them. They eat inside the mountain climbing federation office at Ghazi stadium, where pictures of the men’s team adorn the wall.

LeGree says the space is not ideal, given the steady stream of interruptions by male federation members. She wants to keep the girls focused on their training, so she is searching for a house or apartment to accommodate them.

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But for now, training continues in earnest at Ghazi Stadium, where they sprint up the bleachers and rappel down 23-foot-high walls.

One of the trainees is Ascend Program Coordinator Nargis Azaryun, who says the stadium visits are bittersweet. When she was a young child, the Taliban used the facility for public executions – most memorably of women.

She thinks of the Taliban’s victims every time she enters the gates.

Azaryun recalls being frightened the day the Taliban fell in 2001. To celebrate, a male cousin put a burka on a broom and lit it on fire. Azaryun says she was convinced the militants would return and punish them.

Fourteen years later, the 22-year-old college student revels in pushing boundaries. Pictured below, she is one of the few women in Afghanistan who drives and refuses to wear a headscarf.

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She’s sort of den mother to the girls, whom she joins on a bus that takes them to one of the team’s weekly practice ascents on the outskirts of Kabul.

“It feels amazing,” she says of the climbs. “It feels like you are just born and you have a chance to conquer the world.”

But the team is missing every kind of apparel and equipment needed to scale a mountain, something LeGree says she’s desperately trying to rectify.

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At this army base, the girls line up before the hike in everything from sneakers to cheap knockoffs of brand-name hiking boots purchased at the “Bush Bazaar (named for the former U.S. president),” a market that once traded in goods acquired from the U.S.-led coalition. Some of the girls aren’t even wearing socks.

But shabby shoes and falling snow don’t stop the girls. They take less than two hours to hike up the trail-less slopes. Once on top, they pose for selfies and dine on kebabs – rappelling is out because of the bad weather.

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LeGree joins them on the hikes when she’s in the country, and is visibly fond of the girls. But she’s not sure any of them will reach the summit of Mt. Noshaq.

She says rag-tag practice climbs aren’t enough. She’s also frustrated that most of the girls aren’t showing up to every training session.

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“I’ve been worried from the very beginning about a baseline of physical fitness because technical skills or not, you are not going to be getting up that mountain if you are huffing and puffing,” LeGree explains. “And there’s a strong possibility that at least half of them just won’t be able to get to the top.”

The Afghan Mt. Noshaq climber, Malang Darya, put the odds even lower, predicting only a third will make it.

That’s why LeGree has decided to recruit six new girls from Wakhan region, where Mt. Noshaq is located. They are expected to arrive in Kabul to begin training next month.

Editor’s Note: The mountain climbing federation office at Ghazi Stadium in Kabul — where the girls were eating their meals — was destroyed early Sunday in a fire caused by a wood-burning stove. The men’s and women’s teams both lost equipment in the fire, but no one was hurt.

Earlier today, Arab leaders agreed to form a multinational Arab military force to fight the rebel Houthi movement gaining strength in Yemen – this as Saudi Arabia led a fourth day of airstrikes against the Houthi. Analysts say the airstrikes, aimed at degrading Shia Houthi forces, may be a precursor to a ground invasion and could spark a wider regional conflict. NPR’s Leila Fadel joins us now from Cairo. First, Leila, tell us what is the latest inside Yemen.

LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: I spoke to residents in Sana’a, which is the capital of Yemen. And airstrikes have just resumed, and they’re intense. This is a city under Houthi control, which is a Yemeni Shia group, and it’s a city without bomb shelters or safe havens for residents to run to. During the respite today, people got out, got food and got back home, and the streets are empty now.

There’s also bloody fighting in the port city of Aden, which was home to the Saudi-backed president, who’s now out of the country. The U.N. has evacuated about 200 people. Diplomats are leaving in droves, and Houthis are continuing to fight for the city with its military allies. There’s no signs that this is going to end.

RATH: Are there any signs of a ground invasion?

FADEL: Now, that’s really the big question. The Saudi ambassador told NBC that right now, that the decision hasn’t been made. But airstrikes alone won’t really change dynamics on the ground, and negotiations are really a distant possibility at this point. Yemen’s president has called on the Houthis to surrender in order to end the airstrike campaign, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. Houthis are advancing.

I spoke to a young Houthi activist from a very prominent family who said at this point, he doesn’t think even negotiations are possible. What he – what he was talking about was revenge. He says that the Houthis have to respond. And so for right now, what we’re seeing is continued violence, and this isn’t a country that’s stable. It has a prominent presence of al-Qaida, and it’s where the self-declared Islamic State just carried out a deadly bombing that killed over a hundred people. So more instability in Yemen could mean more instability in the region.

RATH: And in terms of the broader regional picture, why is Saudi Arabia leading this campaign?

FADEL: Well, analysts say this isn’t just about Yemen. Saudi Arabia says it’s reacting to protect the Yemeni president against Houthi advances, and they have a strong coalition of Sunni leaders backing them in this campaign. But Yemen’s a tiny and really poor country, and it’s had internal conflict for decades. Analysts say this is more about power in the region between two regional heavyweights – Saudi Arabia, which has a Sunni Arab monarchy, and Shia Iran. Saudi Arabia backs the Yemeni government, and Iran backs the Houthis.

Analysts say this is Saudi’s message to Iran, which so far has the upper hand in places like Iraq and Syria. What’s unclear is how much control Iran has over the Houthis in Yemen. We’ve also haven’t seen this type of cooperation between Sunni Arab leaders in decades in the region. So what everyone seems to agree on right now is this is a really dangerous moment. Lines are being drawn between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iran, so far, hasn’t reacted other than to condemn and to call for an end to the airstrikes. So this may be the start of a proxy war inside Yemen.

RATH: NPR’s Leila Fadel. Very, very complicated situation – thank you for clarifying this for us.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

Airstrikes continued for the third day today in Yemen. A coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia is bombing Houthi rebels who are said to be backed by Iran.

IONA CRAIG: It does appear now that this has already turned into a proxy battle. With the Saudi’s launching these airstrikes, it’s played into the regional power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

RATH: That’s Iona Craig, an independent journalist who has spent the last four years reporting from Yemen. She spoke with me earlier from London. The U.S. had been working with the Yemeni government to fight al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, but President Hadi has been driven about by Houthi rebels. I asked Craig how this is going to affect the overall U.S. strategy in the region.

CRAIG: Well, I think the U.S. strategy now is in pieces really. It very much relied upon, you know, cooperation with Yemen’s intelligence agency, particularly the National Security Bureau or the NSB as it’s known. That fell into the control of the Houthis once they had control – complete control of Sanaa.

So they had access then to all the intelligence information that had previously been under Hadi’s – President Hadi’s control, if you like. On top of that, then the other corporation was the counterterrorism troops who were being trained by U.S. Special Forces, and the last of those U.S. Special Forces left Yemen just over a week ago.

And now, all that’s really left is the drone program. But without the human intelligence on the ground, obviously that’s going to be difficult – and now there’s airstrikes going on anyway. I think that’s going to have to be on the back burner for the foreseeable future at least.

RATH: Now, the Yemeni government, which you mentioned the former president – this is not an old government. Have they ever had broad popular support among Yemenis?

CRAIG: There was a kind of moment after 2011 when President Hadi was voted in in a one-man election – so his was the only name on the ballot paper. And I think there was a lot of hope at that point for – there was a window of time when everybody felt very optimistic because Ali Abdullah Saleh was finally leaving. But you have to remember that President Hadi was his deputy for 17 years prior to that. So it’s not as if really what – after 2011 there was real change. It was just a reshuffle of the old regime. And I think as time went on, people realized that this new government was certainly no better and possibly even worse.

RATH: And what about the Houthi rebels? Do they have popular support?

CRAIG: Well, the Houthis – they did garner some support. You know, they’ve existed since 2004, and they were very much marginalized and persecuted by Ali Abdullah Saleh previously. They were enemies, and he’d fought them in six wars. And after the Arab Spring, they did gain more support.

And then, as Hadi’s government started to fail, they were sort of pushing for change, calling for an end to corruption, brought up the issues of fuel prices – that did broaden their support outside of their original sort of sheer bounds if you like. But I think that’s changed a lot in the last sort of six to nine months as they’ve become an increasingly violent force within Yemen.

RATH: Finally, there was a report from the International Crisis Group which predicted prolonged violence unless a peace deal is negotiated in Yemen. Who would negotiate such a peace deal, and from your reporting, how likely do you think a cease-fire is?

CRAIG: The likelihood of a cease-fire is not looking good at the moment. Even today, President Hadi made a speech to the Arab League saying, you know, that he wanted airstrikes – these airstrikes to continue. And certainly, if they start using ground troops, then we’re looking at a very prolonged conflict probably. But we seem to be a long way off the option of really going into so many serious talks at the moment.

RATH: Iona Craig is an independent journalist. She spoke with us from London. Iona, thanks very much.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

While Nigerian troops continued an offensive against the Islamist militants Boko Haram, Nigerian voters headed to the polls today. Violence in the country had already postponed the presidential elections once, but the war is only one of a number of issues driving Nigerians to the polls. NPR’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton joins us from one polling station in the capital, Abuja, where they’ve just finished counting the votes. Ofeibea, there were a lot of worries about violence heading into the polls today. Can you tell us what actually materialized and how it affected the voting?

OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: Well, most places it was peaceful voting. I’m told that some areas people were so fed up of the new card-reading machines not working, that they got a little frustrated and a little angry. Even the president, Goodluck Jonathan, had to wait half an hour because the card reader could not read his fingerprints.

It was a two-step process. Your card had to be accredited they called it, verified first, and then later in the afternoon, you voted. But yes, there were incidents of violence, especially in the Northeast where the Boko Haram from insurgency has been terrorizing people for the past six years. We’re told by the police that there were two deadly attacks on voters in the Northeast – at least six people dead there. Witnesses report that apparently gunmen forced villagers to abandon three polling stations in the Northeast. And in another part of Nigeria, in the oil capital in the South, Port Harcourt, the military say that gunmen shot dead a soldier. And then there were two more incidents in the East, very far away from the Boko Haram uprising. So yes, there were isolated incidents of violence, but generally a peaceful vote.

RATH: And what we’re hearing in the background there, is that vote-counting activity going on?

QUIST-ARCTON: (Laughter) The vote counting has just ended. There was a huge hoorah as the presidential vote ballots were counted. And the winner here at this little polling station in Maitama, in the capital Abuja, the winner was Muhammadu Buhari. He is the main opposition presidential contender against the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan. There are 14 candidates altogether, but these two are the front-runners.

RATH: And Ofeibea, remind us what really distinguishes these two candidates aside from Goodluck Jonathan being the incumbent, obviously.

QUIST-ARCTON: President Goodluck Jonathan says he represents continuity, he represents reliability. Muhammadu Buhari says he is the man who is tough on security and insecurity and on corruption.

RATH: So beyond what the candidates are saying, what about the voters? What is driving them to the polls?

QUIST-ARCTON: Peace. Everybody you speak to say what they want in Nigeria is peace – peace from Boko Haram in the Northeast and peace because this is a country that has suffered post-election violence over the years. There have been messages of support from President Obama in the U.S. and from world leaders and regional leaders, saying Nigeria is our number one country on the continent. It is the political and economic heavyweight. It is the most populous country in Africa. If there is peace in Nigeria, there is peace in the region.

RATH: NPR’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton on the line from Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. Good talking with you, Ofeibea. Thank you.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

The Gallo goat is a secret weapon in efforts to cope with climate change.

Courtesy V. Atakos/CCAFS

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Courtesy V. Atakos/CCAFS

The Gallo goat is a secret weapon in efforts to cope with climate change.

Courtesy V. Atakos/CCAFS

Villagers in a rural district of Kenya are getting a helping hoof to adapt to climate change. A newly introduced breed of supergoat is cutting the number of months per year that villagers in the district of Nyando go hungry.

Galla goats are tough but loving. They tolerate heat and drought and have great teeth (which means they rarely need to be culled due to worn-down chompers). The goats also produce lots of nutritious milk and mature more quickly than the old straggly looking breeds that the Nyando farmers are used to keeping. And the females are really good moms, breeding and rearing kids for up to 10 years.

The goats were brought to Nyando by scientists at the CGIAR, a global agricultural research partnership to improve food security. The goats are part of the partnership’s “climate smart villages” project, which helps farmers in the developing world adapt to climate change.

Agriculture needs a “radical transformation” to produce more food in increasingly difficult environmental conditions, says Dr. James Kinyangi, who leads the project in east Africa. “Farmers must become more climate smart,” he says.

The supergoats have become so popular in Nyando that they will replace all the other goats in the area in another 5 years.

Farmers Edward Ouko and Stephen Matinde praised the goats at an agricultural fair in Kenya. They told an audience that they like the Gallos because they mature into adults at around six months — half-a-year sooner than the local breeds. “That means faster reproductive cycles,” say the farmers. More sex means more goats, and more goats means more money. That’s why the supergoats “fetch three times the price” of local breeds at the market, the farmers say gleefully.

“I now comfortably pay [school] fees for my children from the sale of the goats,” Daniel Langat, another Nyando farmer, told the researchers.

And more money means families aren’t going hungry. The goats along with other climate-smart farming activities have brought more food to the table in Nyando households. In 2010–11, a survey of 139 households found that 81 percent suffered up to two “hunger months” a year, with families eating just one or even no meals a day. That number has now dropped to 23 percent.

He joked that one thing Cubans should thank Fidel Castro for is all the old, majestic American cars that are now making him money.

You can listen to the story using the player above.

The hood of Nadine, a 1955 Chevy Bel Air.

Eyder Peralta/NPR

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The hood ornament of a 1955 Chevy Belair. Under new more liberal policies instituted in Cuba the past few years, the owner, Julio Alvarez, started a restoration shop and named the car Nadine. Its baby-pink counterpart is named Lola.

Eyder Peralta/NPR

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Eyder Peralta/NPR

The hood ornament of a 1955 Chevy Belair. Under new more liberal policies instituted in Cuba the past few years, the owner, Julio Alvarez, started a restoration shop and named the car Nadine. Its baby-pink counterpart is named Lola.

Eyder Peralta/NPR

Everything but the motor on Nadine, a 1955 Chevy Bel Air, is original.